Instructor/s: Harvey W Yarranton, Associate Professor Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary

Shawn Taylor, Heavy Oil Program Leader Schlumberger Reservoir Fluids Center

Who Should Attend: This tutorial is designed for reservoir, petroleum, and exploitation engineers/ technologists who are in involved in heavy oil production and processing. The aim is to provide a background for those unfamiliar with asphaltenes.

Tutorial Description: Asphaltenes can precipitate and form deposits upon a change in temperature, pressure, or composition. The deposits can reduce reservoir productivity and foul facilities. Asphaltenes can also stabilize water-in-oil emulsions. Precipitation and deposition may be concerns where diluents or injection gases come into contact with heavy oil. Asphaltenes also play a role in emulsion formation caused by steam injection or in-situ water production. An overview is provided of asphaltene chemistry, self-association, precipitation, flocculation, and deposition, as well as asphaltene stabilized emulsions. The following topics are considered in more detail: laboratory tests related to asphaltenes; models for asphaltene precipitation; and, treatment and mitigation of asphaltene precipitation and deposition.

Instructor/s: Harvey Yarranton is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and director of the Consortium, Asphaltenes and Emulsion Research, at the University of Calgary. He received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alberta. Between degrees, he worked for Dome Petroleum Ltd. and Amoco Canada Ltd. in reservoir, production, and operations engineering. His research interests are in asphaltene deposition, heavy oil and bitumen transportation and processing, and the treatment of water-in-oil emulsions. He is a member of the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology and is a member of APEGGA, the Petroleum Society, SPE, CSChE, and AIChE. Shawn Taylor is the Heavy Oil Program Leader at the Schlumberger Reservoir Fluids Center in Edmonton. He received his B.Eng. Mgt and M.Eng. from McMaster University and Ph.D. from the University of Alberta. He has been a visiting scholar at both Xerox Research Centre Canada and Syncrude Research Center. His research interests include heavy oil phase behavior and fluid properties, asphaltene precipitation and deposition, and interfacial phenomena related to petroleum fluids. He is a member of the CSChE, SPE, and APEGGA.